Built on a foundation of open-mindedness, teamwork and democracy, HWM has been road and studio dynamos since coming together in Gainesville, Florida in the mid-1990s. By 2001, the quartet had aligned with Epitaph in time to drop the highly lauded A Flight And A Crash and its follow up, the much revered Caution.

Again relying on producer Brian McTernan (Cave In, Promise Ring) whom Black calls ""a great shit meter for us,"" the bassist says that The New What Next was ""the easiest record we've ever made by a long-shot."" With another head in the game that the group by now trusts implicitly, Jason says that things were so comfortable with McTernan that when things wrapped up, the members of HWM ""were kind of bummed that we couldn't just hang out with him longer.""

That sort of focus and allegiance emerges from the explosive blast of the aforementioned ""Poison"" -- single-handedly explains how the group has been able to grow its fanbase every year, remain true to itself and retain the kind of credibility eons of other ""mainstream punk"" bands would kill for. As Black thumps on his bass, drummer George Rebelo keeps an expert beat , Chuck Ragan and Chris Wollard carve out blistering,

memorable riffs, along with thought-provoking vocal delivery perfecting Hot Water Music's lure. Furiously intoned prose like, ""I could waste away with politics/drown myself with wine/find myself through solitude/and inject poison into my mind,"" is all the evidence needed to affirm HWM's genius.

Taking its title from the journal where Wollard kept his lyrics in, which he put together taping in pages and the cover from an old children's book, Black says, ""it just kind of fit in with what's been going on with us."" Be it the rhythmic, airwave-worthy ""Ebb And Flow,"" the frenzied, exuberant ""Monkey Wrench"" or the pensive, emotive ""Ink and Lead,"" the band's latest is a stellar representation of all its abilities.

With The New What Next, Hot Water Music builds on its legacy and defies easy categorization by unveiling a twelve-song arsenal that's sure to please long-time disciples and recent converts alike. And that was the band's motivation all along. ""Basically, the thing we wanted to do was bridge the gap between our older and newer fans,"" Black explains.

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